Company’s Next Superheroes

How can trainees learn successfully with Microsoft 365?

What requirements, content and tools are needed? What skills do trainees need to develop to use M365 as a working and learning platform? Can entirely new future skills be developed via M365 so that the apprentices are fit for the working world of tomorrow? What demands does learning in and with M365 make on mentors, the trainee team and HR development?

If you are asking yourself these questions, here are a few ideas that you can use to get started right away.

By the way: The ideas were developed at the M365 Lernhacks Community Event. The next one is coming up soon, so register in the community right now.

Case Study: Tim prepares for his exams

Trainees find everything they need for learning and exam preparation in M365

In this thought experiment, Tim is almost at the end of his training period. Over the course of almost three years, he has completed an in-company training programme to become an IT specialist. Tim has already been taught the subject content from the individual learning fields at vocational school. In addition, he was able to gain a lot of practical know-how and experience in his company.

Now the final examination is coming up and Tim naturally wants to achieve the best possible qualification. His trainer is there to help him in word and deed. Tim has also had a small WhatsApp study group with two other trainees since the beginning of his training.

Tools

With this in mind, we developed TeamLearning as a framework for an agile, team-internal, continuous learning process and tested it with various clients - among them was one of the largest public employers such as a highly innovative industrial group. TeamLearning aims to make contributions of great strategic importance to the organisation in three dimensions:

MS Teams

• Weekly meeting in a learning group as fixed component of the week.

• Plan a “Weekly” to a certain topic for the exam

• Chat with mentors

• Offer an open "Lunch & Learn" session series (together with other trainees) for all employees: learners <=> teachers

• Interview successful IT specialists and collect their tips (MS OneNote)

MS Planner

• Serves as a learning planner in which the learning fields can be reproduced in buckets (so you always have an overview of what still needs to be learned).

• A file card system can also be created in Planner, also as a resubmission, so that learning fields have to be repeated.

MS OneNote

• Transcripts from school can be stored and shared quickly and easily, e.g. with the learning group.

• A learning diary can be used to record and reflect on learning progress in order to learn more effectively.

MS Stream

• The company's own content can be stored there as well as learning videos produced by the trainees and their mentors.

MS Forms

• Quizzes for yourself and others can be created.

• Exam simulations can be created for others to test.

MS SharePoint

• Store content in SharePoint and discuss it: Collect examples of use, collect questions, post interviews/ vlogs with experts on the topics.

Die große Spielwiese: M365, Bots & Power Apps

• In M365, integrations, bots and power apps can increasingly be incorporated in addition to the use of classic office apps. This expands the possibilities of M365 as a learning environment immensely. For an IT specialist like Tim, the focus should therefore not be on the use of bots & power apps, but perhaps on programming his own learning bot, ideally a project integrated into the training.

• Platforms and construction kits for such bots and apps are available at www.botstar.com or landbot.io.

Reason Why Superheroes

For Tim and his mentors, as well as the company's human resources development, the decisive question at the moment is: How can Tim digitise his "traditional" learning? Many companies and schools are certainly not yet in a position to map and provide content and learning processes digitally, let alone in Microsoft 365. So the question of the "Reason Why" must always be raised as to why the content should be painstakingly prepared digitally once again and the learning transferred to M365.

What matters in talent management

Companies, which with increasing digitalisation are relying more and more on tools for work, e.g. with M365, should already make sure that young talents are familiarised with the offers at an early stage or learn to work with and handle them themselves. This not only makes apprentices fit for the training period, but also builds them up as talent for the time after the training.

Companies should therefore perhaps not only see themselves as a training company that teaches and deepens the classic technical content in practice, but should also define themselves along their own, innovative competence models and futures skills, what they expect from their employees, that includes apprentices, and what prerequisites the company must create for this. Then the classic requirement profile for apprentices expands massively and is certainly a challenge, but in the end it leads to the apprentice being prepared for the job, the company and the challenges of digitalisation beyond the requirements of the apprenticeship.

Young talents can play a pioneering role in new tools and also inspire "normal" employees as role models. This is a huge opportunity, especially in companies where the workforce tends to be older.